Ozil calls for focus and summer reinforcements

Mesut Ozil says that it’s not impossible for Arsenal to win the league this season, and has urged the club to spend in the summer on the ‘reinforcements’ needed to win the title in the face of stiffer competition next campaign.

Last summer Arsene Wenger’s only purchase was goalkeeper Petr Cech, although he did add midfielder Mohamed Elneny in January.

However, with the likes of Mikel Arteta, Tomas Rosicky, Mathieu Flamini, Kieran Gibbs, and David Ospina a mix of probable and potential departures, the Arsenal manager will have some gaps to fill in the transfer market.

Speaking to Welt am Sonntag, Ozil said, “We know that it will not be easy and that we need reinforcements if we want next season to be on top here again.

“It is again interesting to see who invests in who and how much the clubs do during the summer break.

“In addition, great coaches are coming into the league. I am thinking primarily of Pep Guardiola. Wherever he has been, he had success. He is a coach, keen on playing and his teams are feared.”

Speaking about this season, he acknowledged that the title was improbable, but not completely out of the question.

“I do not think it impossible,” he said. “Although there are only a few games left, Leicester have a run against some of the big teams to come.

“We ourselves must in any case not allow any more slip-ups. The hope of the title is still there – we have the players for the title.”

I think Lukaku is a good player and better prospect but I’d take a gamble on Sturridge, he’s a better player at the minute and would fit our system better. All assuming he passes a thorough medical of course.

Watching the England-Germany game last night I wondered if Gotze might be a realistic target. Only played 12 games this season so he can’t be too happy – he has had a couple of injuries but is definitely out of favour. Then I remembered it’s March and I hate myself.

Götze was reportedly unhappy, and Bayern are apparently ready to offload him if a good offer comes by. I haven’t watched the Bundesliga the last two years though, so I cannot say much about him bar the World Cup.

But then imagine you are about to be ousted from one of the three best teams in the world. You’re feeling a bit down and the two immediate offers are London or Liverpool. Where would you go? Maybe it’s just me but I sure as fuck wouldn’t want to swap the beautiful Bavaria for a shithole like Liverpool.

If we genuinely want him he’ll be ours before the end of the next silly season.

I would give all of my student loan so that he ride all the way to london in a golden chariot if it meant we signed him… I don’t do buissness or accounting but this sounds like financially flawless plan.

Xhaka would perfectly fill the hole left by Flamini and Arteta. Offload Theo and bring in a world class goal scoring winger (Reus, Greizzman, etc.), sell Ospina since I doubt he wants to sit on the bench next season, loan out Woj again and keep Damian Martinez as back up GK. Have Jenko as back up RB once he’s back and fit for next season, start phasing Per out of the starting XI and use Calum there more often. We have to learn from the mistakes of this season and continue to grow, next season is going to be a tough one.

That’s far too harsh, he’s had some fantastic runs as our GK, especially in the tail end of ’12-’13 going into ’13-’14. That was a magnificent set of performances from any goalkeeper.

Given his age and his insane athletic ability/stature, I rate his very highly, and I think anyone would be stupid to just let him go. He needed to be disciplined of course, but I think we should keep him on the books. Petr Cech isn’t going to be around forever, and when about he’s probably ready to retire, Szcezny will have reached that perfect age.

In my opinion, Chambers is not the solution. We need to go buy a World Class CB. Unfortunately, Chambers lacks pace and is not good enough at this point. Bellerin (Jenkinson backup), Monreal (Gibbs backup), and Koz are very solid. Gabriel has been very inconsistent this season hopefully we will become more disciplined.

I think you mean acceleration. Sure Chambers isn’t the quickest over a short distance and also not exceptionally quick over a longer distance. But as far as CB’s go, once he does get going he is relatively fast and fairly strong both on the ball and off it. Much quicker than Mertesacker which is the key point I think.

As Mertesacker proves, pace isn’t everything, particularly in the CB position. It’s definitely welcome that Chambers is faster though. More importantly, calling any 19-20 year old kid as a ‘solution’ or not is obviously a premature judgment. In my opinion, Chambers is a fantastic prospect, and a prospect he will remain for at least another two seasons. I do wonder what he is going to be eventually groomed for, whether it’s CB or DM.

To be honest I dont think we need as many signings as people think. Arteta, Rosicky, an Flam are leaving but Elneny seems to be Flams replacement. Then go get Xhaka for Atreta, we have enough CAMs to coupe with Tom leaving. Need a ST (Lukaku/Morata) and to sell Walcott asap, get a left sided player(Fekir/Gotze) cause Alexis looks way better on the right. Then sell Debuchy, Szczesny, Sanogo. So thats 3 summer signings an maybe a CB but not a prioity. Wouldnt be against sending Chambers and Ox on season loan for regular premier league game time.

That was my thought as well. Can’t say I blame him, I just hope Wenger gets the message and doesn’t come up empty handed again this summer. Personally, though I have no real evidence, I think the problem last summer is that he was chasing unrealistic targets (& wasn’t willing to meet market rates for some of them). Maybe the pressure that’s been generated this season will change his approach?

That was the position years ago. Now we know he has the money made available. I’m all for supporting Wenger, but I’m not going to pretend that our transfer market activity has been sufficient. It’s been like 90% sufficient in my opinion, given that we’ve got Alexis and Ozil in one season after another, but obviously we’re coming up short around the whole squad here and there due to injury.

i dont understand why you guys hate this fat fela. if i remember right he was saying exactly what happened after our great run of form a year ago (quiet summer shitty season and another good run towards the end to clinch the CL spot)and he was quit right amigos. you were cursing him then i remember so… please if you still cant see that our fellow gooner was right just dont disrespect him 🙂

Because he never stops moaning. You could assemble the best players of all time, dead and alive. God would resurrect the dead ones and some motherfucker of a manager would coach them. Eventually Arsenal play this out of this world team and thump them 20-0 or more. We send George Best and Cruyff back to heaven in tears while God Almighty Himself makes an appearance on MOTD and decrees that Wenger is a footballing genius. One he’d be proud to employ for his team once his time is up.

Guess what, FG would disagree. He’d disagree a lot! Because he likes it when things are shit.

FG is obviously dedicated, given with how often he comes here and ticks off everyone. He could also be insane. We could also all be insane and he could be the sane one. Who knows. But yeah, he reminds me of that little voice in my head, that says “Jump” when I’m on the roof of a building.

For us to win next season some tough calls need to be taken. Like selling Theo and maybe just maybe Ramsey. Buy a Xhaka and some solid box to box guy like Kross or someone. Also a WC striker. I absolutely love Giroud, always been a fan but I honestly think we need more

Agreed. In as long as wenger is at the helm, no meaningful signings will happen. People may as well stop speculating about player purchases. Can someone name a world class player who left a club because his preferred coach was fired? It simply means that players follow the attractiveness of the club brand, the ability to win trophies and money not a coach! So no player will leave Arsenal because of wenger

It’s a bit more nuanced than that, isn’t it? Firstly, I can think of plenty of world class players who would leave a club if they weren’t in the CL, and so can you.

However, your argument seems to assume that whoever replaced Arsene Wenger would, of course, achieve top four because it’s easy. Must be, right? Arsene Wenger does it every year and he’s a Specialist In Failure.

So this new manager comes in, and the players hate him? What happens? They stop playing, the club slides down the table, and the board have two options: sack the manager, or sell the world class troublemakers.

But then we could just replace them with more world class players, because they don’t care about the manager’s reputation.

Main positive of this season has been Ozil for me, not just consistently performing but his commitment to the team as well. I hope that not just Wenger but the entire board can heed these quotes and do good business early in the window to encourage Ozil and Sanchez to sign new contracts. We all know what the team needs (frustratingly, everyone except the men in charge of recruiting this squad seem to see the gaps in it), Xhaka fits, Lukaku would be great, a new partner for Koscielny. It’s a shame that most of our hopes for this season have gone, but I still believe in a lot of these players. Let’s give them all the support we can for the rest of the season and hope that the gaps can be plugged properly in the summer. It will probably be Wengers last chance to finally do so.

Best thing for me is Mesut is talking about next season with us, there is not a club in Europe who wouldn’t have him in their starting 11 so let’s take that as a positive before hopefully a couple of strategic signings!

Have read most of the posts about ooh I want this one and when we get so and so up front it’s all bolox. Unfortunately we have a manager that doesn’t give a flying fuck what you the fans think.so honestly do yourselves a favour and don’t wish for anything in the summer that way the disappointment won’t hit you so hard when he buys an obscure 17 year old from outer Mongolia.

What annoys me most about these idiots on this website is that they just don’t get it. We are going nowhere under this regime. And even if Wenger went crazy and signed Messi, Ronaldo and Suarez we would still finish third or fourth. While the club is immersed in this environment of complacency and mediocrity – of acceptance of second best – there is zero chance of real improvement.

We will only begin to improve when Wenger is gone. We desperately need a new smart young boss who will kick arses, get rid of the deadwood and shoot for the stars. What we don’t need is a tired old has-been with the same old failed ideas. Anybody who thinks that we have a future under Wenger is bonkers.

Don’t you mean ‘Fortunately we have a manager that doesn’t give a flying fuck what you the fans think ABOUT TRANSFERS’ or we’d have any player that had one good season and was flavour of the month, before they dropped into obscurity.

Again FatGooner I think you miss the point entirely.
You may be right about the manager needing to ‘kick arses’, and I do think at times he can do more to motivate the players in a better way. But that doesn’t mean he should go. And it doesn’t take into account the fact that many of the players we’ve signed recently only came to Arsenal because of Wenger, and his footballing knowledge.
Perhaps we should instead review the coaching structure underneath him and recruit a young coach (a la Pires/Henry/Arteta/Bergkamp/Ljunberg) to ensure the players actually turn up for every match.
I hate to pick on him again, but Theo has all the right ingredients to be a top, top quality player (as does the Ox) – he just looks like he needs someone to sit down with him and get his mind right.

Albeit all the nice memories, we need to release Arteta, Flamini, Rosicky *sobs*, Sanogo, Debuchy, Szczesny etc. It’s not that we’re not giving them very much chance. But we have to create space should we bring new players. And we definitely should.

The game has evolved but Wenger is stuck in the 90s. His ability to motivate a side for the entire season is questionable. There are many managers out there who can come and do a job. We are not going anywhere with Wenger.

You speak the truth Özil. Everyone on here seems to agree that big changes are required this summer. A striker and a midfielder are the most pressing ones in my opinion. Like many here I would love to get Lukaku and I think Toni Kroos would be perfect with Le Coq. They might be pipe dreams but not impossible to get. Then a right winger and a center back, does anybody think Gabriel and Chambers are good enough for a title challenge?

And some players are just past their sell date. Apart from the obvious older players like Flamini, I think most of us want Theo gone. I hope Ramsey stays and becomes a Ray Parlour on the right wing but I don’t want him anywhere close to our midfield.

Kroos is over-rated. Last game with Germany, 96 passes and none of them was dangerous. We need a reactive DM not a panzer who has no brain. He isn’t even able to do something with the guys he has around him in Real!

Just want to know who would you guys sign if you were Arsène, Lukaku or Morata? Lukaku is PL proven but Morata is CL proven, played and scored in the Champions League final last season against Barcelona.

He’s not the first player to beg for an active transfer market. Like a few before when it doesn’t happen he’ll piss off.

With pep coming and rumoured the twat going to there neighbours then there is going to be some serious activity in the transfer market.

Just don’t see us signing the three or four top quality players we need. The boss thinks this squad is good enough to compete for all the major trophies. Most of us disagree. The stubborn one will do what he thinks is best.

Anyone expecting us to spend big money this summer is truly mistaken – there was a good swissramble article that points out why. In all likelihood we have about £50m to spend from the new TV deal, any commercial increases for next season and whatever we save on wages (and any potential transfer fees) from outgoing players. We’re just about breaking even at present so with FFP in mind spending more isn’t gonna happen.

Of course we could smash £250m signing players on 5 year deals, with costs being spread over the contracts but this would mean no money for the next few years so we need to be realistic here!

I also read Swiss ramble’s most recent article on us and he wrote: ‘Despite all of these factors, there is still substantial money available to spend. It’s clearly not as much as the figure in the books, but we can say with some conviction that Arsenal should have around £100 million to spend in the summer on improving the squad.’

Arsenal are one of the richest clubs in the world. The idea that we only have £50m to spend in the Summer with the new tv deal, cl money and the money hoarded is simply not true.

We all know this and so do the players. If Arsenal want to keep their best players they have to get better players than the ones we’ve got. Ozil and Sanchez will look elsewhere and I wouldn’t surprise me if Bellerin decides to go back to Barcelona if Wenger doesn’t recruit some decent players.

It’s time for the club to act and show that we means business and not another 4th spot team.

Yep. Also these new managers and their new squad may not have champions league, unlike us. Next season is going to be extremely challenging. We need to be active early on and make some really sensational signings.